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Imagine the world without anger, without greed. We have the power, the tools, the skills and the resources right now to build a peaceful world, where people live in harmony with the Earth and each other. This blog explores ways we are doing just that, one post, one change, one day at a time. Join me. Tell your stories. Ask for help. Spread your ideas for making the vision real and, well, ordinary.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

As I read your blogs and stories, I am so often keenly aware of the suffering many of you have encountered in life, personally, in your work, and in the world.

If I could wiggle my nose and get anything I want right now, it would be an end to suffering. All suffering. So I open my blog to each of you (wiggle wiggle), and urge you to ask for what you need. While there is no guarantee I or another will be able to meet that need, there is no guarantee we won't. Whether it is for yourself or for another--Ask!

What do you need right now? For yourself, for someone you know?

As you go about your week and become aware of suffering, yours and others, think about ways we who read your words and have come to care about your work online and the person we believe you to be, might mitigate that suffering.

Through the comment form below, ASK us to help. Tell us about your encounter with suffering, how we might learn from your experience, how we might be of use, what you need. Who knows who might see the request and know exactly the individual, the organization, the link, the word that might help?

Take courage and ask your own readers about the need, and don't forget to come back here and put a link to the post so the rest of us can find it and support you. Encourage your readers to do the same.

What need might you help to fill?

While you're writing, consider the requests others have made. You can track the requests by subscribing to the comments for this post. You will receive an email each time someone has posted. That way you know who needs help. I don't have tons of readers, so your inbox is unlikely to be flooded.

If you have the means to be of use to another who has posted a need, tell us about that too, that we may all take heart in the generosity and goodness of this world.

Next time I run a Good News Friday post, I hope to tell some of your stories of need and response.

A prayer for you, a prayer for all of us

My prayer for each of you is this: Whenever you find yourselves against a hard stone wall, may someone have left a posie in just that spot to brighten the moment, may others have paved a path towards a safe haven, and may a door or gate open and a welcoming hand extend. When you see another in a hard place, may you have the wisdom and the resources to extend a hand, to open a door, or to smooth a path, and may peace be with you always.

Note: I have limited online access this week, and this may be my only post. I will be reading your blogs as usual, but my iGadgets don't seem to work well with Google posting, and I may not be able to comment until I'm back at my desk sometime next week. I look forward to hearing from you all week long as you respond to this open discussion.

8 comments:

Hi Kathryn you are so right. Last year my baby grandson passed away at 7 weeks old. It was so tragic and through blogging several of my followers wrote me privately and I was surprised how much comfort and support I received through them. We are just that little bit distanced from each other to be not easily overwhelmed by the ordeals we sometimes go through and it is so nice to have a totally unbiased ear to listen to us. It is a great world this blogoshpere. Thanks.

Kim, I am honored that you took time to share a bit of your story here. A few weeks ago, I ran across your blog and learned of the loss of your darling grandson--read the entire story. Thank you so much for sharing how your blogger friends comforted you. I pray that you will continue to find comfort and blessings. I see that your daughter is expecting again. Congratulations! May your joy be as boundless as your sorrow was deep, and may you know only happiness with this child.

Thank you Paul. So good to hear from you! And thank you for asking. What do I need? Dialogue.

Millions of us are writing and posting every week, some every day, and many of us visit each others blogs and post encouraging comments, sometimes thoughtful comments. I'd like to see us all take it up a notch and begin having more public conversations with one another.

Recently one of my commenters challenged an assertion I made. I loved it! She got me thinking for days about some decisions I made decades ago, and on which I continued to rely. That kind of self-examination is good, don't you think? I'd love more challenges, more insight, more questions asked between us.

Now that we have this capability to communicate across vast distances, we have the ability to share our collective wisdom, knowledge, understanding with one another and build a better world, perhaps much quicker than might have been possible when we were so much more isolated.

What do you think?

I'm especially looking forward to hearing back from you about what you need. Thank you for giving it some thought.

Namaaste Kathryn.I read your beautiful post on Ladakh, and sent the link to all my family and friends. Ladakh is special to me - I have just returned (to Mumbai, where I live) from Leh, where I set up a small library for the students of LNA - Ladakh Nuns Association. All this was done with selling off many of my own precious books and with the help of loving family and friends.

I could not believe it when I came back here, and saw :"ASK". Asking for help has been a big and difficult lesson to learn for me; a spiritual gift from when I had a stroke and HAD to ask for help. Now I am comfortable asking for myself and for those I work with.

So: I need good books for the next library we are setting up for a school in Stok village in Ladakh. I am also looking for people to sponsor travel from Mumbai to Leh, for 5 teachers who have generously volunteered 2 weeks of their time,to go with me to do a teacher training program in Leh.

I ask, first of all, for your blessings and prayers. That is what makes everything else possible. And if any material help for this project is possible - that would be truly wonderful.

Marga, so glad you found this page! Thank you for posting your needs. Indeed, I send blessings and prayers. What wonderful work you are doing! Is your book program affiliated with the International Society for Ecology and Culture or the Economics of Happiness? Both grew from Helena Norberg-Hodge's work with the Ladakhi, and I am personally supportive of both.

If any case, if you could share a link to the program/organization which is collecting the books and funds, so we can research them and know where to send them, that would be most helpful.

Again, yes, prayers and blessings for the continued usefulness and success of your work.

Learn. Practice. Ask. Give.

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About Me

This is not my time to stop and rest. This is my time to clean up the messes we've made and build a good world, not a better world, a good world. I do not want my grandchildren to think I did not do enough to prevent runaway global warming and create a better world for them and their children. Every day, I do what I can. Every web page, blog post and network contribution I make is part of that. Every dollar I spend--or choose not to spend--is part of that. Every light, every faucet, I turn on and off is part of that--or not!
Day by day, I am learning to make better choices. When they work for me, I share them that others might take heart as well.